Students of 1st secondary school students at École polyvalente La Pocatière, at the Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup school service center (CSSKamLoup for friends!), recently had the opportunity to learn about the serious game Minecraft: Education Edition. As part of a pilot project carried out in collaboration with the RÉCIT national service, domain of the social universe, they rebuilt the city of Pompeii in Italy.
This was teacher Anne-Marie Labbé's first experience with Minecraft. When Mathieu Mercier, another social universe teacher at CSSKamLoup, approached her to carry out the project, she did not hesitate to offer this different and stimulating activity to her students.
“I was really impressed with the work done by some teams. The students were completely absorbed in the task. As a teacher, I had to accept to lose control of my class a little and let my students go in their creative rush, ”says Anne-Marie.
While the configuration of the devices used in the classroom took a little time and she had to familiarize herself with the platform, she sees a lot of positive in the experience. For her, as for her students, there have been many lessons. “The importance of work organization and communication with teammates should not be minimized. It was a challenge for some, ”she says.
For his part, Mathieu Mercier, who was able to be in class with Anne-Marie for the realization of the project, believes in the potential of this kind of activity.
“This is an integrative activity allowing students to combine archeology, historical approach and gamification. Young people learn by doing, by working together. It also makes it possible to move away from written production in history to assess learning in a different way ”.
As it was a pilot project, the teacher only had four periods for all of this. On the RÉCIT website, the activity is now announced as requiring 5-6 periods of 75 minutes, which seems more realistic. Each team is assigned a place to build in a Minecraft world and must document its functions and materials to piece it together.
“For the RÉCIT, it is important to set up stimulating projects for the students. We have experimented with several of them with Minecraft and we are happy with the interest they are generating. A new project in the energy region will be published shortly, ”says Steve Quirion, educational advisor at the RÉCIT National Service, in the field of the social universe.
Other projects made with Minecraft ...
At primary
In secondary
Dimension (s) of digital competence related to this article
12- Innovate and be creative with digital technology
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